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Aim: The impact of postsurgical intra-abdominal adhesions, which represent a considerable burden for patients and health services, is often underestimated. Various factors influence adhesion formation, including the surgical approach. This study aimed to further understand the condition by investigating surgeons' perceptions of adhesion formation, particularly differences after laparoscopic and open surgery, and by performing a selective literature review., Materials and Methods: South Asian surgeons attending endoscopy symposia in India and in Germany completed Likert-scale-based questionnaires on awareness of adhesion formation and associated consequences in gynecology. MEDLINE and PubMed were searched for articles published in 2000-2010 comparing laparoscopy and laparotomy in relation to adhesion formation. The results of the questionnaire study were then considered in view of findings from this review., Results: In total, 43.1% (97/225) of questionnaires were completed. Respondents considered that laparoscopy caused fewer adhesions than laparotomy for all gynecological procedures. Although they believed their knowledge of adhesion formation was satisfactory, they widely underestimated the risk, giving estimated rates of 12.5% after laparoscopy and 36.3% after laparotomy. Twenty-eight studies were identified in the review. Most concluded that laparoscopy was less likely to cause adhesions than laparotomy but further statistical analysis was precluded because so many different definitions and classifications of adhesions had been used., Conclusions: The risk of adhesion formation was widely underestimated in the study group. Both the questionnaire study and the review concluded that laparoscopy results in less adhesion than laparotomy but further statistical comparison necessitates the development of standard definitions and classifications of adhesions., (© 2011 The Authors. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research © 2011 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.)

Objective: To identify and evaluate surgical management of women with uterine fibroids., Design: Retrospective analysis of mandatory surgical data sent to the Institute for Quality Assurance., Setting: Data collection from 1998 to 2004 in Hesse, Germany., Patient(s): 34,814 women who underwent surgery for uterine fibroids., Intervention(s): Patients were treated with either myomectomy or hysterectomy., Main Outcome Measure(s): Statistical analysis of mandatory surgical parameters., Result(s): Altogether, 4975 (14.3%) women had myomectomies, and 29,839 (85.7%) had hysterectomies. Age was an important determinant of surgical procedure; hysterectomy was preferred for patients over 40 (odds ratio 4.3; 95% confidence interval: 4.1-4.5). Laparoscopic myomectomy rates increased from 25.9% in 1998 to 41.9% in 2004; during the same period, the proportion of conversion procedures and abdominal approaches fell from 15.6% to 2.9% and 38.9% to 30.9%, respectively. Intraoperative complication rates were similar for myomectomy (1.1%) and hysterectomy (1.0%), but postoperative complication rates were higher for hysterectomy (5.8%) than myomectomy (3.2%)., Conclusion(s): The increasing use of endoscopic procedures was an important feature in this series and appeared to be safe. The reduction of conversion rates and intraoperative complications might be related to improvements in surgical skill. Acceptance of the benefits of endoscopic approaches seems to have promoted its steady growth as a primary surgical approach.

Laparoscopic removal is widely accepted as the treatment of choice for dermoid tumors. However, the spillage of dermoid content with the laparoscopic approach is very high compared to laparotomy. The potential malignancy of dermoid tumors and the rare, but difficult to treat, chemical peritonitis in cases of spillage of dermoid content should lead to an adaptation of procedures during an endoscopic operation on a dermoid tumor to comply with the precautions of the "open" technique. Lift-laparoscopy combines laparoscopy with the standard procedures of laparotomy and thus may help reduce the spillage of dermoid contents. In a retrospective study of 108 patients with dermoid tumors, the frequency of the rupture of a dermoid tumor during a lift-laparoscopic operation was examined. Among the 79 cases of organ-preserving treatment, there were only three cases (3.8%) where a rupture of the dermoid capsule occurred. Even in cases of ruptures, it was possible to avoid spillage by closing the lesion with a clamp and continue the enucleation of the dermoid tumor during a lift-laparascopic operation. After thorough abdominal cavity lavage, none of these three cases showed a cytological contamination of the abdominal cavity with dermoid cells. None of the ovariectomy or adnexectomy cases showed a rupture. Histologically, there was also no carcinoma in any of the examined dermoid tumors. By adapting the endoscopic dermoid surgery to the precautions established in an open surgery technique using gasless lift-laparoscopy, ruptures and cell spilling can be avoided to a large extent but not completely excluded. Compared with other methods, the number of ruptures and spillage of dermoids by organ-preserving treatment as well as ovariectomy is lowest using a lift-laparoscopic procedure.